Vote: 30 Best West Ham Players of the 1980s

The poll I started at the weekend on the 50 Best West Ham Players who have played for the club since 2000 has proved very popular. More than 450 people have taken part so far. Yesterday I asked you to vote for players from the 1990s. Today it is the turn of the 1980s. All players are included who played for West Ham in the 1980s, unless they have already been included in the 1990s poll.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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34 Responses to Vote: 30 Best West Ham Players of the 1980s

I found i gave the highest marks in this poll,but then it was a team of absolute legends and the last time we won anything….and i got to sit on Trev’s knee when i was the matchday mascot back in’84!!!!!

I’ll sit out of this one (Born in 84).
Looking forward to seeing all of the results though.
Someone has already suggested this somewhere but a best West Ham team ever from these results would be awesome to see.

Can’t be sure on all of them as little bit before my football years began. However (and I know I will get some stick) Mark Ward was my player of the 80’s. closely followed by Devo & Parks. Too young to have ever seen Brooking, Bonds etc play so only fair to base my scores on players I saw play live and as a former midfield terrier myself Wardy was my idol. Shame what he got himself into after his career ended

At the risk of having my wrist slapped again, where’s Tony Cottee? I didn’t notice him as I was going through the polls and I see that you’re not allowed back in once you’ve voted, so I can’t actually check…apologies if I slept through the bit where I voted for him.

Is this an appropriate thread for me to put in a word for Trevor Brooking, and in particular an aspect of his game that might not have been appreciated?

He had a reputation as a gent, and rightly so, and he was a very graceful player. But he was actually a very tough player, too. He used to use his body and his legs very cleverly to keep the ball away from opponents.

This meant that more often than not the player trying to get the ball off him had no choice but to go through him. It was a very clever part of his game. He’d deliberately see a kick coming and get his legs in the way, either to protect the ball or win a free-kick.

I particularly remember Steve Perryman snapping away at him for the whole of a game and never get near the ball. Wonderful.

And he scored some great goals.

If Sir Trevor had been fully fit for England’s 1982 World Cup finals campaign, the outcome would have been very different. He had developed an excellent understanding with Kevin Keegan, and it was so frustrating that they weren’t able to test this at the highest level due to injury. Two goalless draws against West Germany and Spain put paid to our chances. A late double substitution against Spain gave glimpses of what might have been.

Really enjoyed this one as these were the heroes of my teens! Shame TC and McAvennie were not in this list, but understand why, although they were deadliest together in the 80’s. Brooking, Devonshire, Bonzo & Parkes for me, and who could ever forget the best penalty taker in the league, probably ever..arise Ray !
The 80’s boys get my highest votes. COYI

Cottee and McAveenie must feature in the 80’s rather than the 90’s list, surely – both were at thhe peak of their West Ham careers in the 80’s, and both were past their best 2nd time around.

Considering 85/86 was the best ever league finish in the history of the club, and Cottee and MacAvennie were the stars of that team, both would even be in with a chance of winning the player of the 80’s, or at least in the runniing for 3rd or 4th spot, so I think this is very flawed if they’re not included.

You could probably make a good case for including Brooking and Bonds in the player of the 70’s list rather than the 80’s list aswell?

Infact, thinking about it, Brooking would be my player of the 70’s with Bonds 2nd as both were at thier peak then, and that’s the decade in which they played most of their matches.

Perhaps some players should be included in more than one of the lists?

You really ought to amend your list to include Cottee and MacAvennie in the 80′ list, Iain – I think it’s a bit of a farce otherwise?

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About Iain Dale

I'm a season ticket holder in the Dr Martens Lower and originally come from Saffron Walden in Essex, although I now live in Tunbridge Wells. By day I am a political writer and commentator for various media organisations including the Daily Telegraph, the BBC and Sky News. I am also publisher of the new monthly magazine called TOTAL POLITICS. I want this blog to be a mixture of gossip, humour, reporting and analysis - with the odd rant thrown in too. My other blog is a political one at http://iaindale.blogspot.com and if West Ham Till I Die attracts half as many readers as that, I'll be very happy.